EDU

“Those who do not have power over the story that dominates their lives – the power to retell it, rethink it, deconstruct it, joke about it, and change it as times change – truly are powerless, because they cannot think new thoughts.”
— Salman Rushdie

We live in a world of sacred texts. Not only religious texts, but political, ideological, and educational texts as well. Here in the global north, too many college students experience the privilege of university study as a burden. The intrinsic motivation of building a career or becoming a more complete human being has been replaced by extrinsic motivators like points and grades.

In these projects, I try to take the quest for knowledge back to a simpler and more relevant form.

It’s small size and long, 2.35:1 (Cinemascope) aspect ratio make the Merlino Gallery unique among the 5 galleries at the Long Beach State University School of Art. Here I collect a few of the most delicious, and installation-oriented, of the 30 exhibitions/year featured at Merlino Gallery.

Runaway University Los Angeles (RULA) is an alternative, unaccredited, international university operated out of my home. RULA has been a laboratory for understanding that a different college experience is possible. A bottom-up college experience where motivated students pursue knowledge, instead of a top-down experience where faculty preach to lethargic supplicants.

Medici University is an alternative university for avatars. We grant (unaccredited) MFA degrees and other certificates. MU’s VR campus includes 100 studio spaces on 6.5 hectares of virtual land. The MU experience allows self-driven learners to pursue projects of their own design.